T43p Upgrade possibilities? (and error-code at startup)

[jthendrix]

hi everyone,
I've had my machine for a few years now, and it's getting a bit slower. but, i'd like to hold on to it for a little while longer.

does anyone with one out there have any suggestions for some sweet upgrades or warnings against some upgrades that just wouldn't work? like my internal HD. It's only like 50gigs. Would increasing this negatively effect some other component in there? Sorry, upgrade noob here.

I was thinking about upgrading the processor as well. Sound and monitor stuff is fine for me now, I'm just looking for something closer to warp speed ;o)

one more thing, at startup i get some error codes, and every time i have to enter in the date and time before i can move on. can someone tell me what this is about and how to get it to stop? i read something about it some months ago on ebay in passing, but i can't remember what the person said it was. they were selling a machine similar to mine, so they were just letting the potential buyers know about it, but weren't offering a solution....dunno if there is a solution, but they made it seem like it was a common thing that happened with this machine/operating system.

Thanks much!
jt

[ajkula66]

Loss of date and time is likely a bad CMOS battery. Less than $5 on feebay.

As for the rest...it really depends on how far you want to go and what you're willing to spend...

What's the full 7-character model number of that T43, found on the same sticker that shows the serial number and the production date on the bottom of the laptop.

[rkawakami]

Last question, first...

The resetting of the system's date and time has to do with a dead (or disconnected) CMOS battery. Sometimes known as a "backup" or "BIOS" battery. It's a small coin-sized battery that's wrapped in plastic and has a very small connector on the end. You can usually find them on eBay for a few dollars; don't spend more than $6 or $7 for one. It's important to get the correct one for your system as there are several styles that are incompatible with each other. The T43p uses one that has an FRU (part number) of 02K6572. Beaten to the punch by George as it's taken me some time to compose this response; work is getting in the way!

You will need a copy of the Hardware Maintenance Manual to see what pieces need to be removed in order to get at the battery. A .PDF copy can be downloaded from here: http://thinkpads.com/support/hmm/hmm_pdf/39t2393.pdf You'll need Adobe Reader or Foxit Reader to open and view the file.

Upgrading the hard drive certainly can help but it's really only useful if you are running out of storage room. Increasing the size would not impact anything else in your system other than possibly making any system backups take longer. At the same time, you could install a "faster" hard drive. Most likely you have a 5400 RPM drive; maybe it's even a slower 4200 RPM unit. Putting in a 100GB 7200RPM drive would take care of two upgrades.

However, I'd say the most important thing to look at first is making sure you have the maximum amount of memory. For a T43p I believe that's 2GB (somebody correct me if I'm wrong). Assuming you have Windows XP on it, that's should be enough.

In my opinion, processor upgrades are not worth the time, effort and money unless you are going to get a 50% increase in processing power. Going from a 2.0GHz CPU to a 2.2Ghz is only 10%. You're only going to see a noticeable difference if you do a bunch of data-crunching. Besides the CPU, you may also have to change out the heatsink/fan assembly (due to an increase in heat given off by the faster processor, although I'm not sure if the T43/p systems ever had an upgraded fan).

[priono2000]

Memory upgrade to 2 GB DDR2 PC5300 and change HDD to SSD is very worthed

[jthendrix]

hi everybody, thanks a lot for the replies.

@rkawakami, thanks a lot for the deets abt that battery. and for the link, i'll go ahead and replace that soon.is very worthed[/quote]

@ajkula66, i found a few codes. my machine is type 2668-GEU, and there was another code (29R7077) that was on a sticker along with my product key, but that's sounding like it's some OS stuff. and one more code was X10-60256, but I'm not sure exactly where I saw that.


thanks for the suggests.....@priono2000, @rkawakami...i'll start shopping prices and stuff to see what i can do. the machine is great, i just felt like there was some catching up that it could do so all of this info has been really useful.

thanks everyone

[ajkula66]

@ajkula66, i found a few codes. my machine is type 2668-GEU, and there was another code (29R7077) that was on a sticker along with my product key, but that's sounding like it's some OS stuff. and one more code was X10-60256, but I'm not sure exactly where I saw that.

That's a pretty nice 14" system:

P M 770(2.13GHz), 1GB RAM, 60GB 7200rpm HD, 14.1in 1400x1050 LCD, 128MB ATI FireGL V3200, CDRW/DVD, Intel 802.11bg wireless(MPCI), Bluetooth/Modem(CDC), 1Gb Ethernet(LOM), UltraNav, Secure Chip, 9c Li-Ion batt, WinXP Pro

Not much to do there, really. Max out the RAM at 2GB and possibly get a newer/larger hard disk drive.

You could go crazy with SATA-mod + SSD, "N" wireless card but it honestly doesn't make any financial sense. Take it from someone who has done all of the above, more than once.

Happy upgrading.

[priono2000]

You must try using Win 8.1, the system shown faster than Win 7 or Win XP.

[jthendrix]

UPDATE 1!!! )

thanks a lot for the responses btw
i got my cmos battery in the mail today, and while i was putting it in,i did a little detailing. along with solving the bios prob, i feel totally good bc my machine sounds better, and is less hot bc of the additional pride that went in. idk, i just love this machine.

i have a hitachi 100gb,7200rpm HD on the way, and since i was at it i found a cheap copy of windows 7 ultimate that i'll be installing. pretty exciting, bc my last thinkpad i had for 8yrs and only replaced bc of win95 getting phased out. with the xp fam recently getting phased out, i decided to try out a new OS esp bc i found a copy for $50 on ebay.

i also have one more gig of ram coming in. it's crazy to think that in all of these years, i never doubled my memory. lol, still confused at that

so thanks again, i'll be back with another update whenever i get done with everything else.
i hope someone finds this....i've always found this forum super useful.

last thing! i ordered a new set of screws lol....about $5 on ebay, brand new. a few of mine are a little stripped, so i didn't want that whole thing to go too far. i also need a new palmrest, bc mine is broken around the drive area, right where the screw on the back side goes towards, and it makes the drive pop out constantly. but it's not a necessity, so i'm holding off until i have more disposable loot. unless, one of you friends out there see a reason to order it sooner? like, could it be messing some other component up? it's been going on for about 1.5yrs, so i figured it's been ok since i'm not detecting any probs anywhere else.

thanks again.

[ajkula66]

unless, one of you friends out there see a reason to order it sooner? like, could it be messing some other component up? it's been going on for about 1.5yrs, so i figured it's been ok since i'm not detecting any probs anywhere else.

Nope, you'll be fine. And it shouldn't be *that* long of a wait since T4x palmrests are what...$20 or thereabouts nowadays?

Good to hear that you've made progress. You may want to re-paste the CPU and GPU when you decide to swap the palmrest as well.

Enjoy!